Rams notebook: Faulk, Martin fall ill as bug hits Rams Park

By Bill Coats
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/29/2005

When queasy quarterback Jamie Martin left practice early Wednesday with "a little stomach thing ... vomiting and all that good stuff," depleted defensive lineman Brian Howard was at a nearby hospital hooked up to an IV line.

A day later, running back Marshall Faulk and linebacker Brandon Chillar became the latest victims of a flu-like illness that continues to ravage the roster as the Rams (5-10) prepare for season finale Sunday night at Dallas (9-6).

At one time or another, as many as a dozen players have been affected, prompting interim head coach Joe Vitt to suggest that the rooms at Rams Park should be fumigated in an attempt to kill the stubborn germs.

"Maybe we'll have our meetings outside," Vitt grumbled.

Martin was back at practice Thursday, a bit weary but thankful for the timing.

"It could've happened over the weekend," he said. "Luckily it was a quick thing, and hopefully it's past me now."

Martin received a flu shot earlier in the year. "I guess they gave me the wrong one," he quipped.

Howard, who also returned to the field, said the malady struck fast and hard.

"It's really something," he said. "It comes on so quick." Howard said he was given two liters of fluid.

Defensive end Leonard Little, who collected three of his team-high seven sacks in the last two games, disclosed Thursday that in addition to the fatal shooting of his brother Jermaine on Oct. 17, he also lost an aunt and saw another sibling shipped off to war.

"It's been a rough season," Little said. "My mother's sister died a month after (Jermaine) did, and then my brother got sent to Iraq that same week." Sgt. 1st Class Perlandus LaMont Hughes was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood.

Little, who missed two games after Jermaine was killed, acknowledged that he only recently had been able to return his full attention to football. "When I first came back and started playing, my mind wasn't really focused on (it) that much," he said. "But the last few weeks, my mind-set is great, and I've been playing a little bit better."

Second chances

Mike Goolsby was looking for work outside football before the Rams called last week and signed him as a free agent. Goolsby played on three special-teams units in the loss to the *****.

"I was shocked," said Goolsby, a former Notre Dame linebacker. "A week earlier, . . . I thought maybe the dream was over."

Goolsby, 23, was in camp last summer with the Cowboys and had several workouts after he was released. "It didn't look like anything was going to click, but this one did," he said.

Another newcomer, safety Dwaine Carpenter, arrived this week, a few days before the final game. "It's a job interview; that's how I look at it," said Carpenter, who played in 30 games, with eight starts, in two seasons with San Francisco.

Carpenter, 29, said he didn't know what led to his release in late September. "I don't understand what happened," he said. "The way I see it, they just didn't need me there anymore. So it's time to move on."

Re: Rams notebook: Faulk, Martin fall ill as bug hits Rams Park

I remember a few years ago, I think we were in KC playing the chiefs (but I could be wrong), Faulk had the stomach flu but played anyway. He'd been busting his butt all day long, and right before everyone lined up for the next down, he lifted the front of his helmet and decorated the field with technicolor....shown on national TV.
If Faulk stayed home, it has got to be something nasty. The game I mentioned above was proof enough to me that he is tough enough to play thru almost anything.